No One Noticed This Tribute To Rupert Grint In The Half-Blood Prince

No One Noticed This Tribute To Rupert Grint In The Half-Blood Prince

The first Harry Potter book came out way back in 1997. Twenty years on (yes it’s been 20 years), and we’re still finding easter eggs in the pages of JK Rowling’s seven-part series.

An eagle-eyed fan has recently pointed out that J.K. Rowling included a sneaky little shout-out to Rupert Grint in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – the penultimate novel published in 2005.

If you remember, back in Harry’s sixth and final year at Hogwarts, potions master Horace Slughorn had a very obvious favouritism towards famous, rich or particularly gifted students.

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He naturally took to Harry and Hermione, but unfortunately Ron didn’t fit the bill in Slughorn’s eyes.

As evidenced by this paragraph in the Half Blood Prince, Slughorn could barely even remember his name:

‘I have had it all tested for poison,’ he assured Harry pouring most of the first bottle into one of Hagrid’s bucket-sized mugs and handing it to Hagrid. ‘Had a house-elf taste every bottle after what happened to your poor friend Rupert.’

What’s that? Rupert?

It’s a nice little shout-out to the actor that so wonderfully brought the character to life.

Ron is no ‘Chosen One’ after all and getting his name wrong is simply another way to highlight Slughorn’s disinterest in the youngest Weasley boy. Making it a nod to Grint appears to be a fan-friendly way to do it.